8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship • Hacker News Board

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#141

Post by eaurouge » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:25 AM UTC

devmunchies wrote: post #97

billiam wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...." And they are sending us their best too.

yeah think of what he could have done for Nigeria. actually kind of sad. You need these sharp kids to grow up and help their own people so that there are less people wanting to escape.

I wonder if you would have the same reaction if this was a Pakistani kid, for instance. There’re lots of talented Nigerian immigrants all over the world - this kid won’t be the first lost to the US. And there are lots more talented kids that couldn’t make it out to the US, in Nigeria and in other developing countries.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#142

Post by seppin » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:25 AM UTC

yathern wrote: post #110

WillPostForFood wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but it seems preposterous to suggest the talent distribution within any demographic category is uneven, but if you compare two demographic categories, they are the same. Take a look at the top marathon runners, and tell me that the long distance running talent is distributed equally in Bolivia and Kenya.

Well that's more of a question on what defines "talent" - and if such a thing exists. Genetic predisposition certainly is a thing in sports, and genetics and ethnicity are obviously closely related. The context we we're talking about was specifically taken in terms of intelligence. Or "potential". If you want to make the argument that intelligence potential is affected by your ethnicity, you are free to do so, though…

> The context we we're talking about was specifically taken in terms of intelligence. Or "potential". If you want to make the argument that intelligence potential is affected by your ethnicity, you are free to do so, though I doubt such ideas will be well received :)

The Sam Harris crowd loves this argument

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#143

Post by o10449366 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

mindgam3 wrote: post #82

As someone who had the unfortunate label of “prodigy” applied to me in my youth (chess master at age 10), I’d like to offer a perspective. It almost goes without saying, but huge respect to the kid for being able to persevere through massive adversity and achieve such a result. What I want to suggest without hopefully ruining the “feel good” party is that the adversity and the success here aren’t just a striking coin…

This common in many competitive activities, unfortunately. I had the chance to represent my country at the Olympics for my sport (I'd rather not reveal which one for privacy reasons), but I chose to retire and pursue a university education instead.

I have none of the most desirable physical traits for my sport and I was coached by my mother, who is obese and has no background in the sport herself, until I was almost a teenager and the national team coaches discovered me. I excelled because if I didn't my mother would physically, verbally, and emotionally abuse me. It was only by destroying my opponents that I was spared of her wrath. I too hope this kid is able to find solace in chess and that it brings him peace and enjoyment instead of acting as a catalyst for pain.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#144

Post by bluthru » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 2:41 AM UTC

yathern wrote: post #64

jonahx wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talent is nowhere near evenly distributed. As this boy shows.

Evenly distributed not in the sense that everyone has an equal amount, but that every way you can cut up demographics (age, race, sex, nationality) will have the same bell curve of talent. But that is not necessarily so with opportunity.

>but that every way you can cut up demographics (age, race, sex, nationality) will have the same bell curve of talent.

No. There is not data to support this belief, and the problem becomes when people expect this result and make rules to create this outcome.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#145

Post by BurningFrog » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:07 AM UTC

devmunchies wrote: post #97

billiam wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...." And they are sending us their best too.

yeah think of what he could have done for Nigeria. actually kind of sad. You need these sharp kids to grow up and help their own people so that there are less people wanting to escape.

Nigeria tried to kill him.

He owes Nigeria nothing.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#146

Post by dang » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:11 AM UTC

mooseburger wrote: post #80

Stephen Jay Gould was an ideologically driven liar ( https://quillette.com/2019/03/19/the-mismeasurements-of-step... ). He should not be regarded as someone worth quoting.

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19446089 and marked it off-topic.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#147

Post by dang » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

collyw wrote: post #94

Are girls chess tournaments generally of a lower standard that mens? For physical sports it's clear that men have an advantage in most sports. Chess is all mental ability. Can a guy decide to be transgender and compete in women's chess? (expecting down votes for questioning this).

Could you please not take HN threads further into flamewar?

Downvote baiting is also against the site guidelines. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them in the future, we'd be grateful.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19446534 and marked it off-topic.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#148

Post by danans » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:16 AM UTC

bluthru wrote: post #144

yathern wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evenly distributed not in the sense that everyone has an equal amount, but that every way you can cut up demographics (age, race, sex, nationality) will have the same bell curve of talent. But that is not necessarily so with opportunity.

>but that every way you can cut up demographics (age, race, sex, nationality) will have the same bell curve of talent. No. There is not data to support this belief, and the problem becomes when people expect this result and make rules to create this outcome.

> No. There is not data to support this belief,

At least with things like chess playing and related abilities, there is no data to suggest the opposite belief either. Any observations that we could use at sufficient scale are massively confounded by other huge environmental variables.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#149

Post by internet_user » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:17 AM UTC

systemspeed wrote: post #53

internet_user wrote: post #17

We are post peak-chess. The interest fell sharply after Kasparov's loss to DeepBlue. I was a member of a chess club, that went from 30 tables to 5 in a span of couple of years.

Speaks to the fragility of the human mind. The human collective organism, as it were, instead of rising against the challenge from the machines, decides to shift focus elsewhere. Chess is nowhere close to being a solved game, yet we're already treating it as such.

We all know those games will not be solved by wetware. At best, a human-silicon hybrid, of some sort.

Re: 8-Year-Old Refugee Wins New York State Championship

#150

Post by simen » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 3:24 AM UTC

joe_the_user wrote: post #13

He won the State Championship for children in his age category. If he had won New York State Championship for all ages, he would have been indescribably far advanced. I think Bobby Fisher won the NY State Championship at age 19 - New York holds many of the strongest US players, naturally.

Fischer won the US championship for adults at the age of 14. He then went on to become the youngest candidate for the world championship in history at the age of 15 - a distinction he still holds.